Suffer the Child

Poor little Tania Langley. At the age of nine, she’s an orphan, her parents brutally murdered by her older brother, who subsequently committed suicide. Understandably, she is suffering from psychiatric problems, most notably being completely unable to sleep without medication due to horrific nightmares. Her legal guardian, a distant uncle, has had her committed and the devoted staff at the sanitarium is not hopeful that Tania will ever be cured. Tania herself is very withdrawn and shy and speaks very little. The few people that she does talk to say that she insists that a monster killed her parents.

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Possibilities

1 Tania’s uncle is a greedy, sadistic villain. He murdered Tania’s parents and framed her brother in order to inherit. Tania managed to run away, and by the time her uncle found her, he had realized that he could still enjoy the money if he was her guardian. Unwilling to admit the reality of what she saw, she imagined that a monster had done it. Her uncle secretly encourages this belief.

2 The house that the Langleys lived in was haunted by a malevolent entity. This entity had been steadily gaining strength throughout the time that they had owned the house. Unfortunately, Tania’s parents refused to admit it and tried to ignore the unnatural happenings in their house. Tania’s brother realized what was going on, and tried to put a stop to it. His knowledge proved pitifully inadequate, and he only succeeded in allowing the entity a physical presence. The entity killed their parents. Tania’s brother made a last-ditch effort to stop the entity; he was successful, but it cost him his life.

3 Tania’s brother was a dabbler in the occult and had many books of forbidden knowledge, which eventually drove him to the brink of insanity.  He finally went over the edge after reading an old play, The King in Yellow.  His mind snapped, and he killed his parents before ending his own life.  He did in fact go through some physiological changes, caused by his proximity to the essence of Hastur the Unspeakable. (Hence Tania’s belief that it was a monster.) Unfortunately, Tania had a habit of sneaking peeks at her brother’s books, and he had left the play in plain sight on his desk.

So far, Tania’s age has worked in her favor; the mind of a child has some natural defenses that adult minds do not, and Tania neither understood everything she read nor finished the play. However, only time will tell what lasting effects this will have on her… 

© Megan McKnight

Stop, Thief!

The character is caught up in a bank robbery. (S)he was walking down the street when shots were fired. The robbers then came dashing out of the bank, and one, mortally wounded, collapsed in the character’s arms. Yet, only seconds later, nothing seems to have happened at all; there was no robbery, no dead man, and nobody but the character remembers anything at all about the incident.

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Possibilities

1 Precognition. The events that the character saw will take place, but a week from now, at exactly the same time and in the same place. Before then, the character will see the ‘dead’ robber in the street, going about his business; what will the character do?.

2 Mental instability. The character recently survived a near-fatal incident. (S)he is dwelling on it, and is also suffering from delayed shock. The ‘death’ was an illusion, brought on by an overwrought mind. There will be more just like it - and each dead soul wears the character’s face.

3 Postcognition. The events that the character witnessed happened some time ago (years, potentially decades), at exactly the same time and place. However, now the dead robber has something to latch on to - the character - and his ghost will linger.

© Adam Gauntlett

Stare of the Monster

A travelling freak show is visiting the town. In various tents, visitors can see Siamese twins, the furred lady, the man without limbs, the Elephant girl...

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But the biggest attraction is ‘the medusa’. Inside a cage that is obscured by curtains the director proclaims, resides the mythological creature the Greek hero Perseus encountered, whose sheer view could turn people into stone. To protect the visitors, the medusa is not shown directly, but only its shadow silhouette projected on the curtains by a light inside the cage. The silhouette seems to be that of a female figure with moving, hissing snakes extruding from her head.

To prove further, that it is a real medusa, the director holds a living bunny through a gap in the curtains, which in his hands seems to turn into stone!

Possibilities

1 It’s a swindle - the medusa is a normal woman with a pair of harmless snakes bound to her head. The bunny turning to stone is a trick, involving a fake stone bunny.

If the swindle is openly revealed, the members of the freak show, who’ve just lost their main attraction, will be really angry with the spoilsport... ever seen the movie ‘Freaks’?

2 It’s a swindle - though ‘the medusa’ really has a pair of moving extrusions like extra fingers on her head. In fact, all the freaks are the product of the director, an insane but powerful sorcerer abducting and experimenting on normal people to create a race of ‘improved’ humans - with the freaks being the failed results who at least survived his procedures but stay because they have nowhere else to go. The director always looks for new test subjects...

3 It IS a real medusa - and she does not like to be trapped...

© Philipp Mählmann

The Terrifying House

An old friend calls them for help. He had heard about their interest in paranormal activity but dismissed their interest for a new-age fad. Until now. The friend has recently acquired a mansion, but since he has moved in he has had terrifying experiences.

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Researching the mansion’s history reveals a lack of ghosts, strange figures, monsters or poltergeist activity that would explain their friend’s fear. However, it seems that he isn’t the only one: many of the previous owners sold or abandoned the mansion after only staying a short period.

Possibilities

1 The mansion is not haunted - it is the building itself that causes the terror. The mansion’s inner design, room layout and architecture somehow causes subconscious fear in the minds of those who dwell in it. Whether this is by accident or design is not clear.

2 The mansion is not haunted. There is an underground pocket of gas beneath the mansion which sometimes leaks into the basement and permeates throughout the mansion. The gas has no smell but stimulates the part of the brain controlling emotions and amplifies them. Given the mansion is a bit spooky, that spookiness combined with the gas becomes terror.

3 The mansion is not haunted, but the neighboring house is. In that house dwells an evil entity, trapped by ancient magic. The creature still has some limited power and feeds on the life force of those nearby his prison - such as the mansion owners. The life force drain causes anxiety and panic attacks.

© Nicolas Dao Phan

The Machine Beneath the Earth

Beneath an old city, the sounds of machinery can be constantly heard. The council have tried to locate the source of the noise by exploring the sewers. So far they have been unsuccessful.

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Documents in the library indicate that below the city there are uncharted catacombs from medieval times, extending beyond the sewers. The historical or religious significance of the catacombs is unknown, though they are clearly not Christian in origin. The documents do indicate that one entrance to the catacombs begins beneath the house of an eccentric. The eccentric claims to know why the catacombs were built and what purpose they currently serve, but he refuses to elaborate.

Until recently, city folk have endured the noises with admirable stoicism. However, a recent spate of clinically precise killings have the locals in an uproar. The murders have been conducted with technologically advanced equipment, leaving no trace of a culprit. Each murder victim has been found near an entrance to the catacombs, and fingers of suspicion are starting to point at the eccentric.

Possibilities

1 The eccentric is bluffing and knows nothing about the catacombs nor the murders.

2 A criminal organisation hides out in the catacombs, creating the noise with forging equipment. The catacombs, whose purpose is unknown, amplify the sounds of the equipment so that on quiet nights the sounds can be clearly heard. The eccentric is a lookout for the organisation. The murders, however, are committed by an unconnected individual hiding in the catacombs.

3 With uncharacteristic viciousness, the Great Race of Yith are trying to create a perfect vessel for their minds, using both the organs of humans and machine parts. The murders are committed by their minions to provide the necessary organs.

© Michael Blenkarn

The Forgotten Army

The recent discovery of a mass grave has sparked a furore in the archaeological community. Builders digging foundations have unearthed hundreds of skeletons, apparently battle-dead. When archaeologists came to examine the site, they had quite a shock!

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Possibilities

1 Some of the remains aren’t human. Roughly half the skeletons found are clearly deep one skeletons, and the excited archaeologists are preparing to make their discovery public. Deep one hybrids living locally have got wind of this. They plan to murder the archaeologists and destroy the evidence of their existence.

2 One of the bodies discovered was perfectly preserved as if the man had died only yesterday. The body was moved to the mortuary in preparation for an autopsy, but when the freezer was opened to retrieve the body, it was gone.

The man was a sorcerer who had been unable to avoid being drafted into the army. To escape the battle, he used magic to feign death and was buried with all the other dead. Now revived, he is roaming abroad with unknown intent.

3 At the centre of the grave, the archaeologists found a stone box. The box is being stored at the university, and hasn’t been opened yet. This is fortunate, as it contains something extremely nasty: something that killed hundreds of soldiers the last time it was imprisoned.

© Rob Illing

The Terror in the Fog

In the last years of the nineteenth century, something terrible stalked the fog-shrouded streets of London. For about three months in the autumn of 1888, a madman preyed upon the poor women who had, through poverty been forced to become prostitutes. But then, just when the terror seemed at its height, the killing stopped.

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Why was this? The police didn’t have a clue as to the identity of this killer. The press thought that perhaps the killer had moved away to America. Others thought that the killer, filled with remorse, killed himself. But just one man knew what had happened to this madman, and that man was Dr Forbes Winslow.

Forbes Winslow was the son of a Doctor who specialised in lunacy. He followed in his fathers footsteps and became a leading alienist. He was a medical theorist, a practical detective and also a noted occultist. Dr Winslow became engrossed in the Whitechapel murders and after spending weeks living in the slums of Whitechapel, he formed a mental picture of the killer.

Armed with this mental picture, he began to track the man whom he believed was the Ripper, and Dr Winslow is believed to have found him on Friday 9th November 1888, shortly after the Ripper murdered his final victim, Mary Jane Kelly.

However, what transpired on that fateful night, no one knows because Dr Forbes Winslow was found wandering the streets of Limehouse early the next day. The once proud Doctor, his clothes in tatters and hair turned white, was taken to the mental institute founded by his father and where he died in jibbering madness some two years later.

During that time he muttered the same statement over and over again. “He lies below us. Do not wake the earth.”

And so the matter rested until the spring of 1926 when something terrible rocked the city of London. The killings started once more. Within a two week period three prostitutes were murdered in exactly the same way as the Ripper’s victims. London is once more in the grip of a murderer who seems to kill and then vanish without trace...

Possibilities

1 Dr Winslow after tracking the Ripper down rendered the fiend down to his essential salts. He then took these salts, which he had stored in a jar and placed them into a segment of the new Inner Circle Line tunnel system that was opened in 1889. However, when work began on the mid-level District Line extension, the jar was unearthed and passed into the hands of an unscrupulous occultist. The man, George Chapman, not realising who was inside performed the rite of resurrection. The Ripper, after disposing of this fool, has found himself in a world that was so very different yet still the same, and able to begin his reign of terror once more.

2 The being that Dr Winslow tracked down was a Ghoul whose nest had been disturbed by the work on the new underground line. The Ghoul, finding itself trapped above ground, and having no way to return it had killed to feed itself. However, in a strange twist of fate, the work on the new mid-level District Line has disturbed the ghouls once more, trapping one of their number above ground.

3 The present wave of killings has nothing whatsoever to do with Ripper, but are being perpetrated by Dr Thomas Neill Cream, a man who needs the parts of his victim to help feed his need for fresh organs to help his search for a serum that would stop the ravages of time.

© Rik Kershaw

The Thing in Parcel 314

Three grizzly accidents along the same stretch of service road have ground forestry workers to a veritable stand-still in the North Woods. A stretch of logging road nearly 30 miles long and isolated from any but the most basic civilization has claimed fifteen lives since Parcel 314, an old growth parcel, has been allotted by the Department of The Interior.

The first incident was a logging truck, full of newly cut timber, that overturned and rolled down an embankment killing the driver and the two loggers that rode with him.

The next was a truck which mysteriously caught on fire while transporting replacement crew to the new parcel.

Then there was incident number three. A forest ranger, using the old logging road to get up country to check rumors of poachers, disappeared without a trace. All that was found was his SUV parked on the side of the road. About 100 yard away from that, his hat and shotgun, unfired.

A series of worksite accidents have claimed several lives closer to the parcel itself. Men found tangled in chains or crushed by fallen logs. One man was found, braced inside a portable toilet a look of abject terror across his deadened features.

With enough of a mystery looming over the newly accessible piece of forest the site has been temporarily shut down -- but not without protests from the local forestry concerns. A tense energy hangs over the local town while authorities try to sort things out.

Possibilities

1 Something long undisturbed has been awakened with the incursion into Parcel 314. Whatever it is, it does not appreciate the intrusion and has set upon the local workers and authorities as well as any others who might make their way through that stretch of woods. What’s worse is that the incidents seem to be spreading away from the site, down the service road and toward town.

2 The parcel was opened for a dark purpose. The very same corporate types who are salivating to get back into the woods to continue harvesting are looking for something there. Little do they realize that that something is also looking for them, bent on vengeance for the desecration of its resting place.

3 There is something in Parcel 314, something that wishes to be released from the prison of the woods. As more of the area is cut clear, its evil grows, sowing madness and fear as well as its own evil lusts further and further until it is free to roam the darkness of the North Woods.

©  Eli Arndt

The tower

The investigators read a newspaper report about a mysterious stone tower that has recently been investigated by the authorities. The tower is of unknown origin and is located on a desolate island owned by wealthy fisherman Marcus Moore outside of Nova Scotia.

The tower stands 30 feet tall and has been constructed using stones from and around the island. It is hollow and has a doorway at its base. Markings of unknown origin cover several of the stones, and can clearly been be seen on the photograph of the tower that accompanies the newspaper report.

Possibilities

1 According to local rumour, the tower has only been raised recently and the small fishing community on the island stays away from it. The islands’ owner, Marcus Moore, wants to tear the tower down - but the authorities have prevented him as they want to make sure the tower is not older than the local community claims.

The tower was actually constructed six months ago under the direction of two sorcerers - it is part of their plan to summon Yog-Sothoth. They have already arranged for a platform to be constructed and it just needs to be place it at the top of the tower and wait for the right moment to perform the ritual.

2 The tower is the meeting point for a local cult practicing animal and human sacrifices. The cult worships Dagon and was started 50 years ago when a fisherman named Jacob Moore arrived and told them about a powerful entity called D’go that lived in the ocean. D’go is a distorted version of Dagon, and Jacob discovered this “entity” when he read a very old and fragmented version of a scripture containing chants and rituals. Jacob quickly rose in power as he convinced the other villagers that D’go was the one true god. Those who were not convinced either left the area themselves or were chased away.

The stone tower was built to honor D’go. As the non-believers disappeared, the cult became more and more paranoid and bloodthirsty They usually stay away from the outside world and neighboring communities stay away from them. The cult is currently lead by Jacob Moore’s grandson, Marcus Moore. However, the cult is slowly dying since few children are allowed to live and the cult has failed to attract new members.

The report in the newspaper concerns an investigation by the police of several skeletons found near the tower by a fisherman.

3 The tower is a magical beacon that, when used correctly, attracts monsters and creatures from the deep. The tower is the last remnant of a human civilisation that worshipped Dagon. The civilisation is new to science, and archaeologists from several universities have been sent to examine the tower - and it is this that forms the report in the newspaper.

© Björn Hanson

Slump-Fast

Let’s see, what’s in the mailbox:

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Bill, notice, advertising, bill -oh, a package... pfft, another marketing trick with a free sample of a new diet drug called Slump-fast - 100% guaranteed weight loss, even after eating prime ribs for a whole week while only working the chew muscles... well, it’s free and you’ve gained a bit weight - how bad can it be?

Possibilities

1 It works! Unbelievably, it works! Slump-Fast got thousands of happy customers in the last few weeks, who enjoy eating anything they want, while still losing weight. No side effects, nothing - and all the while, people enjoy eating more... and more... and more... ... ‘Brains!’ ... !

2 Behind Slump-Fast is a group of cultists-cum-businessmen, who worship the old ones. The drug itself contains eggs of a microscopic form of extra-terrestrial larvae, which will spread inside the body, nourishing themselves from body fat. They won’t harm the carrier’s body or internal organs (at least in the first years...). However, they’ll start to take control over their victim's body, first only while sleeping or unconscious, later even in conscious state, making them obedient to the cultist’s telepathic orders.

3 A week later: Of course, no loss of weight. Another bluff package! In fact, analysis shows, that the drug only contains the usual ingredients allowed for a non-prescriptive drug: herbs, water, salt, plutonium... Plutonium?!

© Philipp Mählmann

Southern Discomfort

It’s a hot summer day in 1897, when renowned millionaire industrialist Henry Bowens invites family, friends and acquaintances, including the investigators, to a wedding between his son Eric, and Amelia the lovely daughter of a banker.

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Henry, who pays for the entire wedding, has arranged for the celebration to take place on a riverboat cruising the Mississippi river for a couple of days.

But halfway through the dinner party, the lovely bride suddenly pours a bottle of liquor on herself and ignites it with a lit candle. Quick-reacting family members and guests extinguish the burning bride, but it’s too late; Amelia succumbs to her injuries and dies.

As they are witnessing the bride’s death, a mutual question is asked by the horrified family members and guests; what made such a lovely lady do such a horrid thing to herself?

Possibilities

1 A man bent on revenge and skilled in voodoo made Amelia kill herself. But poor crisp Amelia was not the vengeful man’s target. Her father-in-law, Henry Bowens, was.

The man, Raymond LeManeux, is the sole survivor of a bloodbath on his family during the American Civil War. A bloodbath that was ordered by Henry Bowens when he was a high-ranking officer in the Union army.

For several decades, Raymond has plotted to track down and exact his revenge on the murderous Henry. And now, armed with a vengeful heart and dreadful skills in voodoo - which he learned from a small band of runaway slaves who cared for him - Raymond has finally succeeded.

Raymond infiltrated the wedding party disguised as a cook. He now exacts his vengeance on Henry Bowens and his family, using his voodoo spells through the cooking. But even though his first victim, Amelia, went up in flames, Raymond believes that “Revenge is a dish best served cold”.

2 Forbidden love drove Amelia to kill herself. Even though Amelia was marrying Henry Bowen’s son, her heart belonged to another.

The marriage was arranged - Eric Bowen became smitten with Amelia and even though he realised that she didn’t return his affection, he got his father to exercise his wealth and influence on Amelia’s family. Soon after, Amelia was engaged to marry Eric. She was also forbidden to see her true love, Frederic Jones - a young man of meager status and wealth.

Despite her family’s plans and prohibitions, Amelia continued to meet with Frederic, in secret. Unfortunately, Eric found out and, once again, he ran to Daddy. He informed Amelia’s family and a few days later, a fatal “accident” befell poor Frederic. Distraught to learn about her lover’s fate, Amelia quickly realized the sinister truth about his death. But instead of confronting her family about her suspicions, Amelia conspired a plan all by herself. A suicide plan.

With hopes of an eternal reunion with her lover in Heaven, Amelia poured the liquor over herself and ignited it, setting herself ablaze.

3 Mental illness drove Amelia to kill herself. During her teen years, Amelia began to show signs of a progressive mental illness - brought on by her father’s molestations of her during her childhood years. Worried about her wellness, or rather, what the local gossip mill would say, her family arranged for her to be married to the son of a business friend, Henry Bowens. The family also hoped that the marriage would banish Amelia’s mental illness.

But the family’s plans and expectations did not banish anything. It only made it much, much worse. But no one took time to notice her deteriorating mental illness.

Amelia’s mind finally snapped moments before she turned herself into a human torch.

© Tim Deer

Stained glasses

An investigator is helping an elderly friend or relative to move house. While clearing out the attic, a box labelled “Glasses” is found. When asked where he wants it put, the old man pales and mumbles that he had forgotten all about that box. He suggests that it should be destroyed, and cautions against opening it.

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Possibilities

1 The box contains a pair of opera glasses. The glasses allow scenes at a distance to be viewed with remarkable clarity, but (due to a malicious enchantment) show such scenes in the worst possible light. Viewed through the glasses, a loyal dog looks like a rabid beast and a friendly conversation takes on the appearance of a whispered conspiracy.

2 The box contains two beautiful, slender champagne flutes. They have been enchanted with a love charm.  If two people drink the same wine from the glasses, they will certainly fall in love. The charm, however, has been corrupted by the dark magic used to effect it. A love begun by the glasses will, over time, become a jealous, possessive and fearful thing.

3 The box contains fragments of glass reminiscent of the glass formed of sands beneath a nuclear strike. It is in fact the remnants of a similarly destructive event - an incarnation of Hastur on earth, many years ago. The old man helped to eradicate the menace in his time, but fears that this glass could provide the link necessary for its return. He is unsure why he has kept the fragments, but the miswritten label provides evidence of his unsettled mental state at the time.

© Barbara Robson and Stuart Barrow

Sentence Served

A Correctional Officer (CO) at a county jail is worried that an inmate who is currently incarcerated on a drunk driving conviction is set to be released in a few days. He wants the investigators to help.

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The inmate had been isolated from general housing because he caused too much of a disturbance with the other inmates. He’d never done anything directly; in fact, he’d been nothing short of well-behaved the entire time he’d been there, but he seemed to have a natural ability to make everyone around him agitated. He stank to high heaven, like rotting meat no matter how often he showered and, whatever housing unit he went to would start having problems--fights, unruliness, and a general sense of malaise--as soon as he arrived.

Once in isolation, the CO heard strange noises coming from the inmate’s cell at night--sounds like baying dogs, lions roaring, and hyenas laughing. Yet when he investigated, the inmate would be curled up in his bunk, apparently asleep.

One night, while doing his security rounds, he checked inside the man’s cell through the window in the cell door. The inmate was lying down with his eyes closed; as he turned to walk away, he felt something staring at him. When he turned, the inmate was peering out the cell window at him, his eyes pitch black, his lips drawn back to reveal a smile of pure malevolence.

The officer doesn’t have anything concrete to base this on, but he worries that the area will not be safe once this inmate is released from custody. He’s looking for the investigators to keep an eye on him.

Possibilities

1 The inmate is a powerful cult leader and a practitioner of black magic. He only allowed himself to be caught and arrested so that he could make contacts within the jail. The Correctional Officer is right to be worried - this man is dangerous and has nefarious plans once he is freed.

2 It isn’t the poor inmate’s fault; he’s been tormented ever since he inadvertently summoned a powerful demon during what he thought was some harmless fun with a ouija board. This demon haunts and sometimes possesses this man. He finds some respite in booze, which is how he ended up in jail.

3 The CO is making the whole thing up. He is the real evil one. He knows who the investigators are and wishes to dispose of them, and concocted this story as a mere red herring; something to distract them so he can catch them off guard.

Copyright (c) 2009 Luke Manning

Shannon's Photo

The photo was found in a collection of old photos donated by little Shannon. Coming from her old grandfather’s own, more extensive collection, this one seems out of place and perhaps that is because it is. While most of the photos in her collection depict bright and sunny places, parks, trees, animals at play and a host of cousins, aunts and uncles, this one shows a very moody, dark room.

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The grainy photo almost seems double-exposed, with hazy lines around some of the primary fixtures in the image. An ordinary table is the centrepiece, heavily shaded by something out of frame and stained darkly with layer upon layer of casually splashed pigment, all showing as varying shades of grey in the monochromatic photo.

Most notable is a mirror to the left of the frame that seems to display a much-obscured form, mostly in shadow except for a curious pair of leering female lips. The photo is too small to reveal too much detail, no bigger than a snapshot.

Possibilities

1 The photo is nothing more than a snap-shot cast aside by the girl’s grandfather and mistakenly included in her collection. The woman in the mirror is actually the photographer and her expression is nothing but amusement and frustration combined as she tries to get the shot right.

2 The picture is the last photo taken in a very macabre series kept in a lock box by the grandfather. The grandfather, a form psychiatrist, had taken them as a part of an ongoing study of a very lascivious and twisted woman, a woman with a dark history of violence, murder and of all things cannibalism.

3 The picture is a stray shot of an old room found in the basement crime scene during the grandfather’s days as a city crime photographer. Strangely, the woman is not in any of the reports or recollections of the men who were there that night (few of which survive). The phantom lady only seems to exist in the photograph.

© Eli Arndt

Sister Rosetta

Dr. Matthew Devereaux is a well-known psychologist. He also works with a local paranormal research institute, providing specialist knowledge when called for. He believes that paranormal phenomena have rational explanations that can be discovered through scientific means. This does not mean, however, that he believes that the rational explanation is necessarily something that science is already familiar with.

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Recently, Dr. Devereaux was investigating supernatural occurrences at a local cemetery. He was the only survivor of his team, and was found clinging to a large vine-covered stone gravestone in the shape of a cross.  He was half hysterical, muttering incoherently and behaving in an alarming manner. He has been sent to his own sanatorium for observation, and his co-workers are unsure if he’ll ever recover. He only says one thing that anyone can make sense of: “Sister Rosetta.”

Possibilities

1 Sister Rosetta is a nun at the church the graveyard is located at. She also isn’t particularly pious or chaste; she’s been using the graveyard to have secret meetings with her multiple lovers, some of whom are quite influential figures.

Dr. Devereaux’s team caught her and one of them (a particularly violent underworld figure) in a compromising position. Being the only one with the presence of mind to hide before he was noticed, Dr. Devereaux watched helplessly as the sister and her lover calmly and systematically murdered all the witnesses.  The doctor is suffering from shock, and will recover in time.

2 The cross that he was found clinging to marks the grave of Rosetta de Mar, who was a nun in the late eighteen hundreds. She was found murdered in the graveyard where she was later buried, and the murderer was never caught.

Research will show that since that time, the graveyard was thought to be haunted by her angry spirit. It was clear that something was attacking people foolish enough to be in the graveyard at night, particularly young men. Unknown to anyone on Dr. Devereaux’s team, a young man, Charles l’Orosi (an employee of the institute), is a direct descendant of Sister Rosetta’s murderer. The enraged spirit attacked what she perceived to be her enemy, killing him. Then she turned on the others who tried to help him. Dr. Devereaux used her gravestone as cover, and thus survived her wrath; but he did not escape unscathed.

3 Sister Rosetta is a gifted psychic employed by the institute and was part of Devereaux’s team. The graveyard was being raided on a regular basis by a pack of Ghouls in search of their next meal. The team interrupted them, and the Ghouls were only too happy to take something a tad fresher. Sister Rosetta became hysterical shortly before the massacre (the result of a premonition), and fled before the ghouls arrived. Currently, she is wandering around the countryside with stress-induced amnesia.

© Megan McKnight